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Symantec said that the recently detailed Regin spyware looked like it was created for government surveillance, and there's now some strong support for that claim. Both Kaspersky Lab and Wired understand that the super-sophisticated malware was used to infiltrate both Belgian carrier Belgacom and cryptographer Jean-Jacques Quisquater. Given that the NSA and Britain's GCHQ have been linked to these malware attacks, it's easy to connect the dots -- from all indications, one or both spy agencies used Regin to snoop on these targets. There are also hints that it may have been used to hack into the European Commission back in 2011. The Commission's director of security couldn't tell Wired if the malware in that incident was the same, but the code involved was built from a "series of elements" that worked together, like Regin does.

Apple and other tech giants had better not lean too heavily on Ireland's super-favorable tax environment; at least one big perk is going away. Finance minister Michael Noonan has detailed a new budget that, among other things, will phase out the "double Irish" system that let companies operating in Ireland (including Apple) move their revenue to an Ireland-registered offshore tax haven. As of 2015, companies incorporated in the country will have four years to make sure that they're also tax resident -- that is, they'll pay the same as any other corporation operating on the Emerald Isle.

An EU commission has accused Ireland of granting "state aid" tax breaks to Apple that may break market rules. That was the result of an investigation by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) over Irish deals brokered in 1991 and 2007. It has now asked Ireland to provide more information about its tax arrangements with Apple and other companies, including Fiat and Starbucks. The OECD also looking into Luxembourg and the Netherlands as part of a larger probe to find out if certain EU nations help multinational companies swerve taxes. At 12.5 percent, Ireland has a lower tax rate than any other EU country, and Cupertino's complex tax deals there have been questioned before. As the US Senate saw recently, shuffling money around countries helps Apple avoid nearly $20 million a day in taxes -- and the EU seems to have a dimmer view of its strategy than the SEC did.

Apple is officially a step closer to owning Beats, as the $3 billion merger has just been cleared in Europe. The EU commission ruled that the merger "did not raise concerns because the combined (headphone) market share of Apple and Beats Electronics is low." That might sound like an odd thing to say about Apple, but the EU pointed out that after buying Beats, it would still have Bose, Sennheiser, Sony and other competitors in the sector. As a result, Apple/Beats would be far from a headphone monopoly, which was the EU's main concern. The purchase still has to be cleared in the US, but most pundits think regulators there will toe a similar line. Apple has a new headache, though: one of those competitors, Bose, has just sued it over its noise-cancelling patents.

The European Commission has said that while Google addressed its concerns around games with in-app purchasing, Apple has yet to offer a strategy. Following hordes of complaints by outraged parents, the EU asked both companies to implement changes to the way they sell such apps in their stores. Those include not misleading consumers about supposedly "free" games, not "directly exhorting" children to buy in-game items, thoroughly informing customers about payment arrangements and forcing game-makers to provide contact information.

Facebook is prepared to drop a cool $19 billion in cash and stock to buy Whatsapp, but it won't actually get to until both companies gone through a regulatory rigmarole. Part of that process involves getting the blessing of Europe's antitrust crusaders and according to the Wall Street Journal, the European Commission wants to know just what sort of impact the merger will have on the companies' competitors. Its plan to find out? Sending them, erm, questionnaires. The list of rivals that have been asked for input hasn't been disclosed, but c'mon -- does anyone expect them to say "Oh yeah, the merger's cool, we'll be totally fine"?

The patent wars are about to cool down in Europe... a little bit, anyway. The European Commission has revealed measures that prevent both Motorola and Samsung from using lawsuits over standards-based patents as offensive weapons against competitors, rather than last-ditch options when negotiations fail. To start, the regulator has ordered Motorola to cut out any "anticompetitive" terms in patent licensing deals with Apple and other companies. Motorola is allegedly abusing its control of cellular patents by forbidding companies from contesting those patents' validity; companies and their customers shouldn't be forced to pay for licenses that might not hold up in court, the Commission says. Motorola won't pay a fine for the claimed violation since there's no precedent, but the phone maker now can't threaten a lawsuit simply because Apple wants to challenge the patents it's licensing.

The European Union is more than a little jittery about a US-centric internet after learning the extent of the country's mass surveillance. Accordingly, the European Commission has proposed a whole host of measures that would shift control to the international community. It wants a firm schedule for globalizing internet infrastructure, more power for the Internet Governance Forum, fewer conflicts between countries' internet laws and a venue for improving transparency policies. The regulator doesn't want to give too much clout to any one group, though -- Commission VP Neelie Kroes prefers a "multi-stakeholder" approach that lets innovators move at their own pace. The proposal still needs support from both the Council of the EU and the European Parliament before it can take effect, but it could give Europe a united front when it's pushing for changes in internet policy.

Many European TV aficionados are all too familiar with US content exclusives; you can't watch that hit American movie unless you're with the right provider. However, the European Commission is concerned that these deals go one step too far. It's now investigating whether or not some exclusives violate antitrust rules by preventing access beyond a single EU country, effectively carving up the continent's TV market along national borders. Would-be viewers beyond a carrier's home market shouldn't have to suffer, the EU argues. There's no deadline for the investigation, and there are no guarantees that it will lead to action against broadcasters. However, the move is still good news for Europeans who want more choice as to how (and when) they watch US shows.

Google has already made a few concessions to please European antitrust regulators worried about fair placements in web search results. However, Microsoft doesn't feel those sacrifices are good enough -- and it claims to have scientific proof that more changes are necessary. One of the company's astroturfing outfits, Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, has commissioned an eye-tracking study which suggests that Google's lower-profile sponsored links and map results still draw too much visual attention. "Organic" search results and alternative services get just a fraction of the eyeballs, the Initiative argues. While the data may be of some use to officials, we'd advise taking it with a giant grain of salt -- company-backed studies are rarely objective sources of information.

Almost 20 months after the European Commission (EC) formally launched an investigation into its patent licensing practices, Samsung believes it has come up with an answer. Today, the EC published an open call for comments on the Korean manufacturer's proposal relating to the abuse of standard essential mobile patents (SEPs). In that respect, Samsung says it will not seek an injunction against any company, including Apple, wishing to license its patents for a period of five years. The company says it will also agree to a negotiation period of up to 12 months, after which it will rely on a court or arbitrator to draw up an agreement.

Google-owned Motorola also found itself in a similar position after the Commission opened an investigation into its anti-competitive practices against Apple and Microsoft in 2012. The EC hopes that by limiting Samsung's ability to impose increased royalty rates, competitors will be able to license its patents and provide consumers with more product choice. Should Samsung be found guilty, it could face a multi-billion dollar fine based on a share of its mobile profits.

Google and the European Commission have been doing their seemingly interminable antitrust dance for three years now, but today's development might signal a shift in the tides. In July, the EU's Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, had deemed Google's previous concession offer unworthy and informed Eric Schmidt that the company had to "present better proposals." According to The New York Times, Google has evidently heeded his words and ponied up a new offer that's evidently enough to please the antitrust chief, although specific terms have yet to be disclosed.

At the heart of the problem is Google's tendency to squeeze its rivals (including, but not limited to, Microsoft, Foundem and Hotmaps) out of search results, making it difficult for users to find them. The new offer allegedly addresses those concerns, and while it's unlikely that a decision will be made earlier than next spring, the EU's tentative approval of Google's efforts could mean that case is inching its way to a settlement. Almunia has said that he intends to present the proposal to the complainants in the case, who seem less than enthused. David Wood, the legal counsel for the Microsoft-backed Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (ICOMP) told the Times, "It is far from clear from Commissioner Almunia's description of the revised package of proposed commitments that they go nearly far enough."

The rumors were on the mark -- as part of a larger telecom plan, the European Commission's Neelie Kroes has proposed regulation that would largely scrap roaming fees. The measure would ban all charges for incoming calls within the EU after July 1st next year, and give carriers incentives to drop many other roaming fees altogether. Companies would either have to let customers use "roam like at home" plans in EU countries or offer a choice of roaming providers with cheap rates. Outbound, mobile-to-mobile calls within member states would cost no more than €0.19 per minute.

The strategy also includes rules for enforcing net neutrality across the EU. The proposal bans internet providers from blocking and throttling content. Firms could offer priority services like IPTV only as long as these features don't slow down other subscribers, who could walk away from contracts if they don't get their advertised speeds. There's no guarantee that the European Parliament will vote in favor of the new measures, but it's already clear that the Commission is far from happy with the telecom status quo.

It's no secret that European Commission regulators dislike roaming charges. However, The Guardian now hears from sources that the Commission may propose legislation next week that eliminates those charges altogether. Carriers would reportedly have to charge the same service rates in every European Union country, forming alliances in nations where they don't operate. Networks that don't scrap roaming fees by July 2014 would also have to give customers a choice of foreign providers. Subscribers wouldn't even have to swap SIM cards or phonenumbers, according to The Guardian. A spokesman for the Commission's Neelie Kroes declined comment on the rumor, but noted that the agency wants roaming "out of the market" -- clearly, the cellular status quo won't last for long.

Getting a patent in Europe is hard. Making sure it's protected in every European Union member state is even harder. That's why the European Commission announced today that it plans on simplifying this notoriously convoluted process by proposing the legal framework for a unified patent court. Currently, patents must be validated in each member state to gain EU-wide protection, but as you know, patent litigation is everyone'sfavoritepasttime. Companies can incur prohibitively high costs simultaneously defending their claims in multiple countries. By cutting the number of patent courts down from 28 to one, a unified system would streamline the process of handling infringement cases, and perhaps even promote growth and innovation. While the measure must be approved by the European Parliament and individual EU states in order to become law, the proposal appears to be a step forward in the right direction.

After the European Commission accepted offers from Apple and four publishers to free up e-book pricing restrictions in December 2012, it's now accepted Penguin's commitment to do the same. Much like Penguin's vow to the US DOJ, it will end its agency agreements with Apple and other retailers, and "most-favored nation" clauses will be absent from any new deals struck over the next five years. Most importantly, e-book retailers will now be able to control prices and discounts of Penguin's catalog for two years. This legally binding pledge essentially brings an end to EC's "competitive concerns," as all involved in the original price-fixing investigation have now settled up.

The European Union's antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, told a news conference today that the commission had deemed Google's recent concession offer insufficient. According to a Reuters report, Almunia has written a letter directly to Eric Schmidt demanding that the company "present better proposals," following the antitrust inquiry into Google's search and page ranking behavior. "After an analysis of the market test that was concluded on June 27, I concluded that the proposals that Google sent to us are not enough to overcome our concerns."

These changes, which would be enacted in the next five years, included more labelling of links that promote Googles own search services (like shopping), along the lines of showing that they are promoted placements. There would also be more graphical separation of the above links -- again, like how you see promoted ads in the search results page. The company would also offer the ability for rival search sites to tag their results so that Google would be unable to improve its own search offering by indexing those pages. Given other recent issues between Google and some European countries, the proposals also touched on offering a way for publishers to control exactly what part of their content is used in Google News.

The search giant's proposals were handed to the European Commission back in April, following its three-year investigation, with the regulator involving both Google's rivals and third parties in its decision-making process. We've reached out to Mountain View for comment and will tell you more when we hear it, and you can check out some of those rejected proposals at the More Coverage link.

Update: Google spokesman Al Verney added that the company would continue to work with the EU on the matter. "Our proposal to the European Commission clearly addresses the four areas of concern."

Starting today, anyone hopping between EU member countries with their smartphone will see roaming charge caps substantially cut across networks and services. As promised by the EU Commission's VP Neelie Kroes last week, new price caps will drop call charges by "at least 17 percent," while receiving calls are reduced by 12 percent per minute starting today. Text message costs are down 11 percent, while (perhaps most importantly) data charges across networks in Europe have been cut by 36 percent, down to 45 Euro cents per MB -- 91 percent cheaper than they were in 2007.

The commission says it has managed achieve price reductions of over 80 percent across mobile services in the last six years, but it isn't done there. Further price caps are promised for the same time next year too, as you can see after the break, with roaming data charges set to be further halved (down to 20 cents) by July 2014, with voice calls and text charges also seeing further, admittedly less substantial, reductions. Now, let's see how the EU fares on those ridding the old country of throttled data speeds.

The European Union has only taken baby steps toward proper net neutrality legislation so far. Today, however, the European Commission's Neelie Kroes just gave the first glimpse of what those continent-wide rules could look like. Her proposals would let companies prioritize traffic, but not block or throttle it. The measures would also prevent gotchas once customers have signed on the dotted line: internet providers would not only have to offer clear terms of service, but make it easier to jump ship for something better. There are concerns that the proposals would let providers favor their own services, but Kroes also makes no arbitrary distinctions (and thus exemptions) between wired and wireless networks, like we've seen in the US -- can we get these rules elsewhere, please?

It was almost a year ago to the day that the European Commission began investigating Motorola over reported abuse of its standard-essential patents (SEPs), and now the regulators have a little more to say on the matter. The Commission has issued Motorola Mobility a Statement of Objections, which doesn't mean any judgment has been reached, but lets the company know its preliminary view, and it ain't good news. According to these initial findings, Motorola wanting an injunction against Apple in Germany based on some of its GPRS-related SEPs -- the particular legal encounter that was the catalyst for a complaint by Cupertino and ultimately, the EC's investigation -- "amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules." Motorola originally said it would license these patents under FRAND terms when they became standard-essential, which Apple was happy to pay for. However, the company pursued an injunction nonetheless.

The Commission's statement goes on to say that while injunctions can be necessary in certain disputes, where there is potential for an agreement under FRAND terms, companies with bulging SEP portfolios should not be allowed to request injunctions "in order to distort licensing negotiations and impose unjustified licensing terms on patent licensees." Joaquín Almunia, the Commission Vice President who's responsible for competition policy, echoed what we've heard from other important folks entrenched in the never-ending patent battlefield (such as Judge Koh), saying: "I think that companies should spend their time innovating and competing on the merits of the products they offer -- not misusing their intellectual property rights to hold up competitors to the detriment of innovation and consumer choice." So, what happens next? Motorola will first have its right to address the statement before the EC makes a final decision, but it's looking like a fine is headed the company's way. Hopefully, the outcome will also have a wider impact on patent cases of the future, so companies will spend more time making shiny things for us, and less on courtroom squabbles.

Google has no doubt been on pins and needles wondering whether or not the European Commission will accept the search engine changes it's proposing to avoid an antitrust showdown. If what we're hearing is right, Larry Page and crew might just get to relax in the near future: sources for the New York Times claim that the EU agency has accepted Google's proposal. Reportedly, the terms of the deal are close to what had been mentioned last week. Google would have to explicitly label search results that come from its own services while sometimes showing those results from others. It would also have to test the results in the field to get feedback from both the Commission and competitors. While neither Google nor European officials have confirmed the apparent leak so far, any truth to the story could mean the long-running saga might draw to a close before it gets ugly.

There's no question that most of the talk between Google and EU regulators over the firm's search ranking practices have taken place behind closed doors, but now the antitrust inquiry is one step closer to a binding resolution. Following a preliminary assessment in which the European Commission laid out its concerns, Google has offered up a formal list of commitments in attempt to assuage the regulator -- and in the process, avoid a nasty fine that could top $5 billion. Reuters sources suggest that one concession may involve labels within search results that distinguish Google's services from those of its rivals, but whatever the final resolution entails, EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia asserts that it'll be a legally binding agreement. As for the next step, Google's proposal will be subject to input from its peers, which includes complainants such as Microsoft. If there were ever an opportunity to kick up some dust, we reckon this'd be it. Then again, it could be that Redmond is more preoccupied with Android nowadays.

Believe it or not, the European Union's public data hasn't been very public: despite a 2003 directive, there wasn't a clear right to reuse weather or other vital data, whether it's for an app or a service. Logic is taking hold now that 27 countries on an EU Council committee have endorsed a European Commission revision opening the floodgates. The new rules would require that EU countries explicitly permit citizens and companies to reuse public information, either for free or no more than the basic cost of sending it out. The revamp would also push availability in open formats, along with expanding the directive's coverage to archives, libraries and museums -- you know, repositories of nothing but public knowledge. Both the European Parliament and individual governments will have to sign the changes into law sometime in the (likely not-so-near) future, but the shift could lead to a sudden wealth of data for Euro-centric hardware and software.

Google has spent the past couple years facing down antitrust accusations in Europe for pushing its web services over those of competitors. But, just as that case is coming to a close, the New York Times now reports that new anti-competitive allegations have been levied against Android. This new complaint was filed by a group called Fairsearch -- whose members include old EU foes Microsoft and Nokia, plus Oracle and a host of travel booking websites -- and claims that Google's using Android as a way to deceive consumers into using Google apps instead of competitors' software. The problem, as Fairsearch sees it, is that Google forces OEMs who use Android to unfairly place apps like YouTube and Gmail in prominent places on the desktop. Of course, this new complaint is just the beginning, so we'll have to wait and see what the European Commission's investigation into the matter uncovers, and how the folks in Mountain View respond.

You're still waiting to get 4G? That's old hat: the European Commission is already thinking about 5G. It's investing €50 million ($65.3 million) into research with the hope that the next-next-generation cellular technology will be a practical reality by 2020. About €16 million ($20.9 million) of that is headed toward METIS, an Ericsson-led alliance hoping to develop wireless with 10 to 100 times the capacity, a similar increase in speed and just a fifth of the lag. Like a UK parallel, though, there's only so much technology talk the Commission can offer at this stage. The funding is as much for regional pride as progress -- officials want 5G to be a Europe-led affair after Asia and North America took center stage on 4G.